CoSW's faculty Dr. Maryah Fram was featured on WIS about the creation of programs to help local children and link them to opportunities and have never considered before. To watch the segment, click here.

The University of South Carolina is renovating Hamilton College, located at the intersection of Pendleton Street and Pickens Street, so that is can be the new home of the College of Social Work. The $17.5 million project will unite the College under one roof for the first time in many years and welcome more than 600 undergraduate and graduate students back to campus in Fall 2015.

Exterior of Hamilton College

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The College of Social Work welcomed its first students in 1969 and has since produced nearly 6,400 graduates across the world who help, heal, and advocate for people in need. The College’s offices and classes have been housed in numerous locations throughout the Columbia campus, including DeSaussure College, the Old Alumni House, Thornwell Annex, and Sumwalt College. The move to Hamilton will mark the consolidation of the academic unit into one location.

Hamilton College was built in 1941 and used as classroom space with an adjoining naval armory. At that time, the U.S. Navy had begun extensive training programs at the University. By the time Hamilton College was built, there were almost 1,400 men in the programs, including 642 men on active duty. The civilian enrollment of about 1,000 consisted mostly of women. The building was named for Paul Hamilton (1762-1816), a former governor of South Carolina who served as Secretary of the Navy.

The Boudreaux Group was commissioned to design renovations and additions for the Hamilton College. The original building housed a gymnasium and office space. The new design adds a full second floor and a 1,000 sf addition to the west side, creating a new main entrance for the building. In total, the building will was 27,504 square feet. New HVAC, sprinkler, electrical, lighting, and fire alarm systems will also be added. Five classrooms, a student breakroom, computer labs and multiple conference rooms are among the features in the new building.

Renovations to Hamilton will be completed during the summer of 2015 with an anticipated move-in date in August 2015. A building dedication will occur in Fall 2015 and will be announced at a date to be determined.

We invite you to honor a loved one, leave a legacy, or build a memory by naming one of our classrooms, labs, offices, conference rooms, or atrium in the new College of Social Work home. Located on historic and beautiful Gibbes Green, over 600 undergraduate and graduate students will enter the building daily to pursue their educational dreams that will make our communities a better place. Click here to choose which is the right naming opportunity for you.

Please join us for the dedication of Hamilton College as the new home of the College of Social Work on Friday, the 11th of September at 10:30 am. Click here to RSVP.

The College of Social Work

We collaborate with the local, national, and international community to promote social well-being and social justice through dynamic teaching, research, and service.

The University of South Carolina and the College of Social Work continues to mourn the loss of those killed at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston on June 17th. Three of the victims, Reverend and Senator Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Graham Hurd and Rev. Daniel Lee Simmons, MSW ’73 were alumni of the University. Click here to read more.

Dr. Shaun Owens uses community-based research methods to develop sustainable, technology-based interventions, products, and services for aging adults. His work focuses primarily on the development and evaluation of embodied conversational agents for promoting informed health and cancer decision-making among African Americans.

The College of Social Work is pleased to announce a gift from Patrick to endow The Patterson/Woods Endowed Fellowship Fund. This fund will support students from underrepresented populations that are interested in social, community and economic development.

Dr. Bethany Bell’s dedication to community health started at a young age. She started volunteering with the American Red Cross in middle school, and she was awarded Volunteer of the Year by the city of Tulsa her senior year. She continued volunteering in college, this time helping non-profit organizations that served individuals with HIV/AIDS. Hearing the powerful stories of people with HIV/AIDS motivated her to get involved with public health issues. After college, she elected to stay in the public health arena by working for AmeriCorps for two years. Then she started a mobile immunization van in Tulsa that visited child care centers and schools to help keep children up-to-date on their immunizations. That program has since blossomed to include two vans in Tulsa and two more in Oklahoma City.

Dr. Bell is now aiming to make a lasting impact on South Carolina communities by taking a social epidemiological approach to community and family health. “I’m not a traditional social worker,” she says, claiming the title of statistician instead. Her applied and methodical research focuses on “how the context in which we live affects our health.”

Dr. Bell’s research looks at the “cultural and environmental influences” on food choices and at neighborhood characteristics in order to help us rethink “how we define food access so it better reflects reality.” She hopes her findings affect public policy regarding food access and education.

Dr. Bell originally came to UofSC to teach statistics courses for the College of Education. After achieving tenure in the COE, she came to the College of Social Work eager to take advantage of the opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and research. Social work is by nature transdisciplinary and interprofessional, she says, so moving her boundary-crossing research to the COSW made perfect sense. From adolescent helper to COSW professor, Dr. Bell is effecting positive change wherever she goes.

Master of Social Work, University of South Carolina BA Social Work, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Expertise

Ms. Bradley specializes strategic planning, accountability reporting and project management. She comes to the College of Social Work with almost 13 years in SC State Government, primarily with the Early Care and Education Division at the SC Department of Social Services. There she became a Senior State Certified IT Project Manager and led many teams through the project management methodology. She has also been heavily involved with all aspects of program development including, strategic planning, systems development, data reporting and federal planning and accountability. Ms. Bradley’s background in social service program development and project management creates a unique skill set that she brings to the College.

Ms. Bradley’s primary responsibilities at the college are to provide infrastructural support by creating and managing course schedules, project management for the CSWE Reaccreditation Self-Study, data collection and analysis, and program planning.